


Secrets in San Francisco

by eliosoll



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Dharma & Greg
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Have a nice day, I just wanted to have some fun, dont take it too seriously, in my opinion, there needs to be more dharma and greg/criminal minds crossover, this is entirely self indulgent, thought the idea was cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26636377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eliosoll/pseuds/eliosoll
Summary: During a case in San Francisco, Aaron Hotchner's past catches up with him.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Dharma Montgomery, Dharma Montgomery/Greg Montgomery
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Secrets in San Francisco

**Author's Note:**

> This is a purely self-indulgent little fic that I wanted to write because I thought it might be sweet. I just wanted to have some fun, so don't take it too seriously. That said, please read if you wish! Comments and kudos are always welcome.

Aaron always felt uneasy whenever a case took the team to San Francisco. The ever-present fear of his past catching up to him constantly loomed over each visit. Every turn of a corner could produce a vestige of his former life. Pete could be at the grocers’, Jane could be at the post office, Abby could be in the park; Aaron even kept an eye out for Mrs. Estevez from the dry cleaners, she had always been the ever-present busy body of the area. His discomfort with the city was not lost on his team, but through the years they had learned that any question about the topic would be brushed off and avoided. Aaron would deflect and change the subject, using the current case to distract the team away from his jumpy state. He would keep his past in the past if it killed him.

Changing an identity, Aaron had found out, wasn’t as difficult as he had initially thought. After the car accident that had killed his wife and spared him, a change of name, a sealing of records, and an invented past was all it took for Greg Montgomery to become Aaron Hotchner. He couldn’t stay in San Francisco in that life after the crash, not without her. His parents had understood eventually, his mother only grumbling once or twice during their last dinner together. He was still in contact with them, phoning them on Christmas and birthdays. Abby and Larry, he had cut off entirely. He couldn’t bear to see them; they reminded him too much of her. 

So, Aaron headed off to Virginia, a job secured at the Bureau after a few calls with his contacts at the Justice Department. He met Haley, they had Jack, they divorced, then Foyet happened. Aaron mourned the loss, silently wondering if perhaps he was cursed. Two dead wives, surely that was a sign. He spent his time between work and Jack, pouring all of his remaining love into his son. He tried not to think of what might have been. If the crash hadn’t happened. If he had never left San Francisco. Then the case came.

* * *

Someone was kidnapping young boys in broad daylight. Ages ranged from five to eleven, all taken in the middle of the day from crowded places. When Aaron went over the case file in his office before the team gathered in the conference room, his hand clenched around his pen. His jaw locked and his brows moved to knit together as he read the name of the most recently taken child. Harry Finkelstein. It was a name he had never thought he’d ever see again. How was that little baby already ten years old? Aaron sucked in a sharp breath and pushed his emotions aside. He could do this case without getting personally involved. As long as he never met face to face with Abby and Larry.

The rest of the team had already congregated in the conference room when their chief arrived. David gave Aaron a curious look, almost as if he knew something was wrong, as the man in question sat down beside him. The curiosity turned to concern as Penelope went through the case summary and the team threw possibilities and conjecture across the table. Aaron could feel Dave’s eyes burning into the back of his head. He made a hasty retreat as he spoke, picking up his files.

“Wheels up in thirty.”

The plane ride was too short. It didn’t give him enough time to build his walls higher. He needed a thicker skin to face the city again. Aaron was too lost in thought to notice when Rossi slid into the seat across from him.

“You okay?” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m fine,” Hotch said quickly. Maybe too quickly. “When we get there I want Reid and Morgan to go to the scene of the most recent abduction once we’ve made our introductions. You and Prentiss can start with the board, and I’ll deal with the chief with JJ, okay?”

“Okay.” Dave agreed, fixing his friend with a bit of a stern gaze. “Look,” he started. “I know it’s harder when it’s kids. I bet they remind you of Jack? The youngest one taken was only a bit older than him. I get it. No one will blame you if you’re a bit out of it.”

“I’m fine, Dave,” Aaron repeated, retreating behind his shield of case papers.

Upon reaching the station Aaron’s charges went about their tasks. Morgan and Reid lingered as they waited for names to be exchanged, Rossi and Prentiss went to rearrange the incident board to their specifications, and Aaron and JJ went to talk with the man in charge of the case locally. Thankfully it was no one Aaron had come across before now. Detective Andrew Kelsey was in his fifties, bearded and smiling. He looked more like he should be in middle management than the police force. Aaron thought that he wouldn’t look out of place at Montgomery Industries.

“Thanks for coming,” Kelsey said. “I had to practically beg the brass to get you guys here.”

“We’re happy to help however we can.” JJ shook hands with the man. “I understand that Harry’s parents are still here?”

“Oh, yeah. Sweet couple. A bit...out there, if you get what I mean.” He raised his eyebrows knowingly at the two. “They’re just over there.” Kelsey nodded towards a spot behind JJ and Hotch, making the duo turn.

Aaron managed to keep a straight face as he set eyes on the couple. They looked tired. He felt a pang of regret for not having been able to help them with their growing child. As Abby and Larry looked over at the agents, Aaron turned away and left for the incident board, hoping that they hadn’t seen his face.

When Morgan and Reid returned from the scene they had some extra things to add to the case. As they relayed the news to Prentiss and Rossi, Aaron was sitting at the table behind them, tapping his pen against his thigh and staring through various panes of glass at the couple who had been his parents-in-law a lifetime ago. As the team regrouped Hotch turned away, not noticing that said couple was making their way over. 

“I’ll say it again, Larry, you’re just seeing things.” Abby’s voice filtered in through the door and made Aaron turn to stone, the air in his lungs evaporating.

“And _I’ll_ tell _you_ again, that my eyesight isn’t going and that it was definitely-” Larry’s sentence was cut short when the statue that was Aaron Hotchner managed to turn around and face the music.

“...him…” Larry’s confidence deflated upon seeing the face of a man who he thought had disappeared without a trace.

Aaron weakly attempted to feign a sense of normality by extending his hand for a shake.

“SSA Aaron Ho-” It was his turn to get cut off as Larry reached a finger forward to poke the man’s cheek. 

The rest of the team stood awkwardly at the side of this interaction, synapses firing in an attempt to figure out just why their chief had such an effect on this couple. JJ tried to cut the tension by drawing all attention towards a newcomer that had entered the station.

“Oh, there she is. She made good time,” JJ said, glancing at her colleagues.

“‘She’ being?” Prentiss asked.

“She was the last person to Harry. They were out at the mall together.”

At the introduction of a new face, Aaron pulled his eyes away from Abby and Larry. What he saw made his legs buckle and he collapsed down onto the table behind him.

“Hotch!” Morgan was at his side in an instant. “You alright?”

“I’m...I’m fine,” he responded absentmindedly. He stood up, almost trance-like, and moved to stand in the doorway of the room, a whisper leaving his lips.

“Dharma.”

She was as beautiful as the day they’d met. A little older now, clothing slightly more subdued, but still so lovely. Aaron couldn’t stop the smile that worked its way onto his face.

“Aaron, what is it?” Dave asked, worry in his voice once again as he moved to stand beside the other man.

“My wife,” Aaron said breathlessly.

Dave let out a sigh, glancing back at the team who all had the same pity filled expression that he no doubt had on as well. He placed a hand gently on Hotch’s shoulder and spoke softly.

“Haley’s gone, Aaron.”

“No, no,” Aaron said, pulling free of the hand. “Not Haley. _My wife._ ” He left the room before any of his colleagues could pull him back. He needed to see her, to touch her face, to know she was real. Behind him, he heard a weak “Greg-” get uttered, probably from Abby, but he didn’t turn back.

Aaron, upon reaching the front desk that the blonde woman was standing by, faltered. His feet couldn’t take him any farther. It took him three tries to form a word.

“ _Dharma_.”

When she turned, she had worry etched into her face, but it slipped away quickly only to be replaced by shock, then surprise, and finally joy.

“Greg.”

Her voice was as bright as she could make it be given the circumstances, but her lips twitched into a smile and Aaron couldn’t help but smile back. In a whirlwind of emotions, the two crashed together in a rib-cracking hug, Aaron cradling the back of Dharma’s head with a hand. 

“I thought you were dead,” he murmured. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry,” was her reply. “I can explain, I promise.”

“You better.” But it wasn’t an angry threat, Aaron even chuckled softly as he spoke.

“Why are you here?” Dharma asked, still not letting go of her husband.

“Harry. I’m here to help find Harry.”

“Did my parents call you? I thought they didn’t know where you were.”

“They didn’t. I’m here with my team.”

That made Dharma shift back slightly to look at Aaron. “What team?”

Back in the precinct’s conference room, the level of discomfort had become palpable. The agents were idling by the incident board, trying to interview the missing boy’s parents without bringing up the fact that their unit chief was embracing what was apparently the kid’s much older sister. That would be a conversation to be had once Harry Finkelstein had been found. And it didn’t take long for that to happen. 

* * *

Thankfully, the Unsub was only interested in keeping the children in some farcical reenactment of a family, rather than interfere with them or kill them. For the team, it was a fantastic way to wrap up a case. But there was still the elephant in the room that was Aaron’s connection with the Finkelsteins. The case had gone too quickly for more than a passing question, but Aaron dismissed them quickly, stating that that was for after the children had been returned home safely. Now there was no more room for excuses. The team had sat their boss down in the conference room of the San Francisco police precinct that they had conducted their investigation out of, alongside the now-chipper blonde woman with whom he seemed to have this connection. Dave was the one to speak first, his mouth set in a soft frown.

“Explain.”

Aaron swallowed hard, clasping his hands together tightly. Dharma leaned over to place a hand of her own on top of them.

“I’ll talk, honey, it’s okay,” she said, smiling at him before looking up at the others. It made more sense for her to explain anyway, seeing as she knew why she had been pronounced dead. Aaron had told her his side of the story not long after their initial meeting many hours ago, and so she explained away his story as well. 

The crash had not been an accident, as Aaron had thought, but instead, it had been staged. Specifically staged to kill Dharma. Apparently, she had been poking her ever-present nose into some business that not even she could smooth out. That was what the US Marshall had told her when she’d gone into Witness Protection. They had told Aaron that she had died, convincing her that it was better for his safety that way. It had only been the year previous that she had finally been able to come out of hiding and back to San Francisco. She hadn’t been able to find Aaron, one she’d returned, unable to get his parents to divulge his whereabouts.

“I’d all but given up when I saw him here. Like a ghost, really.” Dharma turned to smile at her husband and quickly got one in return from the man. A smile that hadn’t been on Aaron’s face for a decade.

The rest of the team was silent, mulling over the stories that had been relayed to them. It sounded fanciful, but what other explanation could there be? There was too much detail in the tale for it to be an invention. Before they could even ask a question, the door burst open and the senior Montgomery’s made their presence known.

“Gregory!” Kitty exclaimed, passing over Dharma entirely. Evidently, they’d been filled in on her reappearance. “You look absolutely horrible. Do you ever sleep at all?”

Aaron hung his head and prayed that no more interruptions would be forthcoming.

“I do, Mother,” he said, trying not to catch the eyes of any member of his team. The explanation for his parents could come at another time, on a different day. 

* * *

That night they had dinner at the Montgomery home. _All_ of them. The team, their leader, his new but old wife, both sets of parents, and little ten-year-old Harry, who was more than overjoyed to have his family back. 

It would take time for all wounds to heal, all trusts to rebuild. Both in the BAU and between the reunited couple. And they would. But for right now, this one night, they could eat together; laughing, smiling, catching up, teasing. 

Yes, for now, they hadn’t a care in the world, Aaron thought as he leaned to his left and kissed his wife. For now, they could be nothing less than happy.


End file.
